Questions for a new sticky FAQ thread

As promised! It's my first day back from vacation, and it's a new year, and I'm about to fulfill my resolution of creating a FAQ thread that people can refer to in order to figure out how to do stuff.

Since I don't want a FAQ thread to be bogged down by discussion, I'm going to create this thread for people to post questions they have about how to use the new babble software, or to post suggestions for things they think we should include in the FAQ thread.

Then I'm going to create the actual FAQ thread itself, make it "sticky", keep it limited to moderators only, and post instructions there, based on the questions and suggestions we get in this thread.

None of the above was created using the little icons in the Comment box. Here is how it was done. NB: I've inserted spaces after the [ brackets which you will have to remove in order for things to work:

When you have your link text highlighted, instead of just inserting the
link, perhaps also click the underline icon, and then your link text
will be underlined as well. (Or you can change the colour to red, or
bold it, or whatever you like.)

Unfortunately Michelle, that is not accurate. That's why I posted instructions above as to how to code underlining and colour. Those icons in the Comment box don't work.

Summary:

The following icons do not work and never have, at least for me:

The following icons do work:

As for , I don't know - haven't tested it, because I haven't needed to. Perhaps someone else can comment.

In short, your lengthy post in the FAQ thread needs to be revised to clarify underlining and colour (at least), in order to avoid user frustration.

I am wondering how do you know who is the mods here? I have been lurking, but only just signed up, and I know the old babble had a spot that said "moderated by" and I think that it was also maybe under their name? I know Michelle and Oldgoat are moderators, and JRose - but I am unsure of anyone else. Fill me in?

Yeah. In "Your Menu" (upper right of page), click on "My Inbox", then click on the "Compose" tab, then start typing the person's name in the "To" box - wait a second, and all names starting with those letters will appear.

Yes, yet more than a courtesy. It is an extremely basic webpage functionality issue.
The onus should NOT be on the poster to find a way to draw attention to the existence and whereabouts of an otherwise invisible link--and NOT on the reader to waste time dragging their mouse around the page in the quest for the possible existence of a referring link.

I know the mindset of too many webpage design artists who would rather opt for "elegance" or "the clean look" over information sharing--which they sometimes see as an irritating imposition on their creation.
Well, the most "clean" look, of course, is a blank page.

Hey this is a silly question but, um, I'm get kinda tired of being classified as a "recent"-rabble-rouser... How long is this supposed to take to wear off? I know it reset with the new Babble and I can no longer view my post count (I don't think?) to check how many posts I've made since the relaunch but its certainly been more than a few... I notice some other posters have "graduated" but many regular posters still seem to be stuck in the "recent" category? So could someone tell me a) if it is possible to track the number of posts you make anymore? b) what the target number of posts for graduating from "recent" is? or better yet, c) if Michelle or another mod can adjust this setting for those of us who are hardly recent anymore? I know some posters who've been here far longer than me are also stuck as "recent" members...

I hate the recent rabble rouser tag too. It's kind of ridiculous. But here's why - this new software apparently doesn't count your POSTS. It counts the number of FIRST posts, so new threads that you post. And I think you become just a plain old rabble-rouser after you've posted 30 or something like that.

It's annoying, but not at the top of our list of priorities to fix right now, considering that we still don't even have visible links.

contrarianna, I totally agree with you re: links. It's ridiculous to have to manually underline them ourselves - especially when everyone except moderators have to actually type in the underline tags in order to do it!

Apparently the new version of the editor is coming soon. I know, I know. I keep saying that. But that's what I'm hearing.

Just out of curiousity, how is it that posts are sometimes anticipated on the hotlink on rabble before they show up on TAT or in the actual thread? Last night I noticed this with Boom Boom's post in the Chrysler mugging thread in Labour and Consumption. And now I have been waiting for over ten minutes to see martin dufresne's response in the apostasy thread in Body and Soul.

Actually, the name beside threads in the hotlinks to babble on rabble's front page are the second posters to the thread (or the first "commenter"). Apparently it's really hard to change that to the last person who posted in the thread with this software.

I've asked them to just take the name out altogether since we can't get the last poster to the thread as the name next to the thread, but it's further down the priority list to change that.

I'm trying to get my head around the editor and am wondering about a couple of things. How does the permalink feature work? Can it be used to fix the sequence of an entry if I discover a typo aned want to edit the entry without changing its sequence in the thread? Can anybody suggest a useful resource for this kind of stuff?

What about the mysterious variable line spacing in posts? Sometimes it looks like a half-space between lines, for no discernible reason. You've all noticed this I'm sure - I tested it in both Firefox and IE, same problem.

Peter3, I just did an experiment. I edited my post #36 directly, and I edited my post #28 via permalink. Both ended up with a new date (today's), but the sequence within the thread remained the same.

The only use I know for the "permalink" is the ability to link back to a specific post within a thread. That was possible in the old Babble as well, but you had to splice in the post number into the url. If there's another use to the permalink, I can't imagine what it might be.

There is no "useful resource for this kind of stuff", other than posting questions and tips here, as you have done.

Peter3, I just did an experiment. I edited my post #36 directly, and I edited my post #28 via permalink. Both ended up with a new date (today's), but the sequence within the thread remained the same.

The only use I know for the "permalink" is the ability to link back to a specific post within a thread. That was possible in the old Babble as well, but you had to splice in the post number into the url. If there's another use to the permalink, I can't imagine what it might be.

There is no "useful resource for this kind of stuff", other than posting questions and tips here, as you have done.

Thanks. I'll try it and see what happens. Last time out (a while ago, I confess) I ended up with the revised copy below comments responding to it.

I have a question - I have a old tag line I want to get rid of but do not know how.It comes up at the end of all my posts.

HOW DO I REMOVE IT OR CHANGE IT?

thanks, Jan

P.s. I read the long threads on being kind to one another and why people go away or lurk for a while and so on. also the thread on NDPers feeling welcomed and so on.

We should start an NDP confessional - I am a NDP member, and on the executive of my riding association. I donate monthly to the party. I belong to babble because I like talking with other folks who are progressive and interested in their ideas and thoughts. No party is perfect.

I get turned off when some babblers will highjack a thread, do personal attacks, and are just mean. I might read the thread but definitely not participate.

And yes, I get down when there are constant put downs of the NDP and/or any other party for that matter. I would prefer issues would be debated and less focus on personalities. That's it folks - confession over.

I have a question - I have a old tag line I want to get rid of but do not know how. It comes up at the end of all my posts.

HOW DO I REMOVE IT OR CHANGE IT?

It seems that when the pimply-faced IT geniuses at rabble killed the tag line function they managed to grandfather the existing ones, so that they remain forever and can never be changed or deleted. I have to delete mine every time I post a reply.

The only use I know for the "permalink" is the ability to link back to a specific post within a thread.

I hardly ever use the permalink to link to a specific post. I prefer to use the link embedded in the post number beside it, which takes you to the specific post, but keeps the context of the whole thread as well. Try it.

If any of you is under the impression that he has explained the "Permalink" feature in any comprehensible manner, let he be forever disabused. This thread ought to be renamed "Questions and haphazard, elliptical answers..."

I have a question - I have a old tag line I want to get rid of but do not know how. It comes up at the end of all my posts.

HOW DO I REMOVE IT OR CHANGE IT?

It seems that when the pimply-faced IT geniuses at rabble killed the tag line function they managed to grandfather the existing ones, so that they remain forever and can never be changed or deleted. I have to delete mine every time I post a reply.

Grrrr - thanks M. Spector. Did you make any requests to the mods to eliminate these? I really, really would like to eliminate mine without having to erase each post?

Edited to add: OK, I've figured that if I create a table in MS Excel (or Open Office), highlight the cells I want, press the shift key down and click on the edit button, I can save a bitmap that can be pasted into something like Windows Paint and then saved as a .jpg file.

But first you'd have to upload it somewhere (like photobucket or wherever) and link to it, right?

Easier than the Paint thing is simply to select it in Excel (or Open Office Spreadsheet, which is what I use) and print to PDF (using any number of free drivers...). But you'd still need to upload it somewhere. I have no idea if you can create a table, line it up, and simply paste it here. Doubt that that would be easy.